The Cardinals are working to extend the contract of longtime catcher Yadier Molina for at least one more year and “probably” two more seasons, reports The Athletic’s Mark Saxon (subscription required).
Molina, 37, has been the Cardinals’ primary catcher since 2005 and, over the course of his career, has shouldered the largest workload of any backstop in the game. His durability is the stuff of legend, as evidenced by 15 straight seasons of at least 107 games caught and an average of 126.4 games caught per season during that remarkable stretch. From 2009-13, Molina caught at least 131 games per year. As recently as 2016, he started a ridiculous 142 games behind the plate.
Currently in the final season of a three-year, $60MM extension that pays him an even $20MM per year, it’s unlikely that Molina would command such a lofty salary under the terms of a new contract. The 2019 season, after all, was among the least-productive years he’s put together since breaking out as a big league regular (despite a league-wide uptick in offensive output). In 452 plate appearances, he hit .270/.312/.399. Molina’s low strikeout rate and excellent bat-to-ball skills have long helped him post quality batting averages, but last year’s 5.1 percent walk rate was the lowest of his career. His power dipped noticeably from its 2017-18 levels as well. Molina’s once-elite caught-stealing rate and framing numbers have also tailed off over the past couple of seasons, checking in closer to league average.
Molina, of course, is still a plenty useful backstop — one whose all-around value to the organization would surely be labeled as invaluable by the Cardinals themselves. Hammering out a specific price point could be difficult, though. Molina’s annual salary was already a high-water mark for catchers, and there’s no recent precedent for a catcher inking an extension at this point in his career. Then again, there’s no real precedent for a catcher with Molina’s track record in today’s game at all (as alluded to previously). By the time most catchers reach their age-38 seasons — Molina will turn 38 in July — most have either been downgraded to backup status or have simply retired.
The level at which Molina deems an offer to be suitable, then, is anyone’s guess. His career path in some ways mirrors that of longtime teammate Adam Wainwright, who looked to be running on fumes at the end of the 2018 season. Wainwright agreed to a one-year deal with a minimal $2MM base salary in 2019 and maxed out his incentives package with a bounceback 2019 effort that he parlayed into a $5MM deal for the 2020 season — but that comparison only goes so far. The two play vastly different positions, Molina is talking extension as opposed to a free-agent deal, and he’s still been healthy and reasonably productive on the field.
Saxon reported late last month that Molina would be willing to accept a reduced role in the second season of a new deal (2022), but it seems for the time being he’s still focused on functioning as a workhorse behind the plate. If that’s the case, it’s hard to imagine him settling for anything like the Wainwright deal. Free-agent catcher Robinson Chirinos, who shares an agent (Melvin Roman) with Molina, just signed a one-year deal with a $6.5MM guarantee for his age-36 season in Texas, but he doesn’t have Molina’s track record and isn’t ingrained into the very fabric of Rangers history in the same was as Molina, who has reached icon status in St. Louis.
The Cardinals have $101MM on the 2020 books and $115MM worth of luxury-tax obligations, so it’s certainly not a matter of whether they can fit a new Molina deal into the budget. Rather, the question becomes how the two sides account for a potentially waning level of production for Molina while still respecting the level of value he’s provided over the past decade and a half as he carved out a likely road to the Hall of Fame.
Nostalgia is a hell of a drug
So is the Hall of Fame
When fans need to discuss/argue/defend a player as a Hall of Famer, it’s the first sign he’s not a HOF player. Cut the damn cord with Molina. He’s not good anymore.
He’s a first ballot HOFer. Nothing to argue
He’s probably the greatest defensive catcher of all time. He’s 12th in fWAR amongst catchers. No he was never a great hitter but neither was Pudge Rodriguez.
Pudge Rodriguez was never a great hitter? What planet are you from? And Molina is not the greatest defensive catcher of all time. Not sure how anyone can make that claim?
Pudge had a wRC+ of 104. Yadi is at 99. And Yadi has the most defensive value per Fangraphs. He’s behind only Pudge and Bench in gold gloves. There are multiple metrics that support him being in the conversation.
Look at Pudge from 1994-2004, his prime, and count up his .300 seasons, SS awards, OPS, OPS+ and whatever other goofy SABR stats you can find. Then tell me he wasn’t a good hitter. And I don’t count gold gloves as anything. They’re subjective and ridiculous.
What pipe are you hitting? crack? Stats don’t lie.
Ivan had almost 3000 hits and over 300 homers.
Rodriguez career:
WAR
68.7
AB
9592
H
2844
HR
311
BA
.296
R
1354
RBI
1332
SB
127
OBP
.334
SLG
.464
OPS
.798
OPS+
106
Molina career:
WAR
40.2
AB
6970
H
1963
HR
156
BA
.282
R
701
RBI
916
SB
66
OBP
.333
SLG
.405
OPS
.738
OPS+
98
Just go to bed Maurice Lock. Adults are talking
Chitown, “adults?” You? Adults appreciate facts.
Troll
Dee-bag
You think 106 OPS+ is great? Reminder, I said Pudge wasn’t a great hitter. For a catcher? Sure, a great hitting catcher. But Yadi’s league average hitting should then be considered as good enough for the Hall, which was the Crux of my initial comment.
First ballot? That’s crazy. He dominated his generation with solid longevity. But he was never berra. Bench, pudge, piazza
Maurice you make zero sense. He is not going into the HOF because people (fans) are discussing it? What are you smoking
Hey Chitown makes an intelligent comment
Maurice usually doesn’t make sense because he is a troll who only want attention on cardinals post
That’s not nice
Pudge took steroids. Ask Cansaco.
The legend himself. Hope they do it. Love watching dude play
I love watching him run to first base on groundballs.
I love reading your jealousy of the cardinals…do you wait around all day just to spew hate on cardinals post lol yea one of the all time great catchers who has done more than you will ever do in life…yea let’s talk trash about him lmao
lol troll –
This should wait until after 2020. Let him resign one year at a time like Waino. The kicker here is if they do an extension now is his new salary cannot be less than 80% of his currently salary per the current CBA, so you are talking 16M per. That is ridiculous even for Molina at 38, and then 39, and 40. I understand he is an “icon”, but performance does and should matter.
Provide link to CBA with this info, I have heard this before but want to see document.
https://www.mlbplayers.com/cba
Click the link at the bottom for the PDF. I believe salaries are article VI but I haven’t read it in a long time. The 20% is pursuant to several things. You may have to jump around the CBA article to verify all.
Cat Mando, looks like this is in regards to tenders, not new contracts. So pretty much just pre-arb eligible players that don’t have the ability to negotiate their contracts.
Couldn’t they agree in principle to a new deal, but not sign it after this season?
Sign him to play for a few more, then manage, then work front office.
A lot of the other players went to work in the team in some sort.. Look at the broadcast team. Ricky Horton was a pitcher for the Cardinals and Jimmy Edmonds was their GG Centerfielder. They also have room for Willie McGee, Ozzie Smith, Cris Carpenter, Jose Oquendo, in roles of the team. Others are there too.
HOF no doubt
If it was 25 years ago id say probably not. By todays standards hes in. I think hes right there personally.
He’s a first ballot no doubt Hall of Famer!
You’re constantly trying to convince yourself of that, aren’t you themed? You know how truly great it takes a player to be a first ballot HOF? Obviously not.
Troll
His value goes beyond statistics. Nice to see him stay with the same team.
I’m a Cardinal’s fan. I’m a Yadi fan. I’m not a fan of the recent extensions the team has agreed to. Their track record is not good. He’s under contract for this season. What’s the rush here?
Can’t agree enough. You’re talking about a 2-year extension for a catcher entering his age 38 season. Granted Molina is arguably the Tom Brady of catchers, but I think it’s incumbent on Molina to seriously consider retiring after the season and leave the game on his terms. An extension for him is just not a good business move for STL unless it’s a 1-year deal of $5M or less to back up his successor.
I’m a Cards fan and a Yadi fan, but I hope they don’t overpay here. He should be paid like an above average backup catcher with Knizer starting in 2021 and Herrera possibly starting in 2022 or 2023.
Guy’s gonna be playing when Mike Trout’s son makes his MLB debut……
Just retire already
No.
Flaherty will not be happy with the Cardinals!!!!The Mets by passed the rules to reward their player!! The Cardinals didn’t.
Yadi is a Cardinal great just like Stan / Lou/Gibby/and of course The Red head and many more who wore the birds on the bat shirt.
Tom Brunansky?
2 yr 18 mil? How off am I
Hopefully you’re off 2 years and 18M, and I don’t mean 4/36
Caught stealing drop off is a joke. He’s as good as he ever was. Still one of the games best. Most guys steal off the pitcher. It’s not his fault if the runners get good jumps off the pitchers that can’t seem to hold them close.
Let me see if I understand the liberal Democrat double standard here. When he was throwing guys out trying to steal bases, he was considered the best. When the drop comes, it’s now the pitcher’s fault for the stolen bases? Got it, Chuck Schiff.
People still don’t run on Molina son. But if a pitcher gets lackadaisical and the runner gets a big jump how in the world is that Molina’s fault. Some people just have no clue!
Nobody runs in baseball. It’s barely part of the game any longer…son. Either way, you can’t have it both ways on Molina or any catcher.
Hey lock you must be a cub fan. Go enjoy your 3rd place team.
And A moron pretends it’s political
Rip…..that should be right on the money!! (No pun intended!! ). Cardinals set the precedence with .217 Carpenter. Yadi should get it if Carp got it for a very poor season.
What in the world are you talking about? Carp got his extension off of a phenomenal 2018 where he was a serious MVP candidate into the final month of the season. Not defending the extension, but to say his 2018 was very poor is pretty outrageous.
So many people are so quick to hate on him, look what he’s done. He even said he doesn’t care if he starts or not. True legend
Given that there’s not much depth behind Yadi, I’d say go for it if he’s going to split time with Knizner or whomever. But if I was Mozeliak, I’d wait to see what the Phillies do with Realmuto. Cards could be players for him. However, probably unrealistic given the Cards spending habits with FA’s, and a Realmuto signing would leave Yadi with about 20% of the catching duties, as opposed to a Yadi-Knizner tandem.
Not much depth behind Yadi? They have knizner and Herrera behind him in the minors and Wieters as the back up in the majors…I would say that Is plenty
Their catcher depth is in Arizona.
The Cardinals have two legitimate catching prospects, one of which is ML ready now and another who will be in as little as a year from now if he keeps his progression arc moving. Both are top 100 prospects (depending on the source with Knizner, but still). How much catching depth could you possibly want? Lol
If Knizner was truly ready right now then I don’t think they would have signed Weiters. Knizner didn’t necessarily perform well last year. He’s going to spend the majority of the year In AAA barring injury to Yadi or Wieters. As for the other prospect, under MLB.Com, he’s not listed in the top 100, nor is he on the top 10 catchers list, his ETA isn’t until 2022 either
I don’t think you understand how that works…it would be horrible for knizner to sit on the bench in the Majors…he needs to be playing in a daily basis…yes his defense could use a little work but he has proved to be able to hit…either way it would be no good for him to ride the pine, hence why you sign a veteran to play back up for Yadi…if Yadi goes down then yes Knizner comes up…yes Herrera is only 19 but many think he is truly going to be the heir to Yadi…” The Athletic’s Keith Law ranked Knizner as the Cardinals’ No. 5 prospect last month, he wrote, “Knizner makes a ton of contact, spraying the ball all over the field and, if he were a better catcher, he’d be on the overall top 100.” The Athletic literally just wrote an article about what they are going to do with Knizner…” Knizner realizes his ultimate major league dreams might play out in another organization. The Cardinals’ No. 4 prospect, by the way, is Ivan Herrera, who is six years younger than Knizner and might, in fact, end up as Molina’s heir apparent.”
Not to mention it was noted that knizners defense has improved and they believe he is MLB ready
And as I said, If Knizner was truly ready, then he’d be earning it, and so far he has not earned it, hence why they signed Wieters. If Knizner was truly ready, Knizner would be splitting time 40-60 or 50-50 with Yadi, which is plenty of playing time. But he’s not, it’s going to be Weiters. If they anticipated Knizner to start the year in the MLB, Wieters wouldn’t have been signed, a guy like Butera or Sucre would have been signed.
He is ready…but you don’t let a young catcher sit the bench…he needs to play…they signed Wieters because Yadi will be playing the majority of the time…you’re not going to tell Yadi to sit the bench for Knizner…now with this new contract in which Yadi has said he will be willing to dial back his playing time maybe then you bring up Knizner…hence why they only signed one year of Wieters…after this year you might see knizner up…but till then Yadi is in control and knizner needs to be playing on a daily basis to stay sharp…plus this whole thing was about the cardinals depth in which you said they had none…they have plenty
Knizner could have played 40-50% of the games this year if the Cards truly felt he was ready. His offensive numbers in AAA say he is ready, but signing Wieters signifies that the cards want him in AAA. The cards don’t think he’s ready. And no I don’t think the cards have a lot of depth, or I guess solid depth. Yadi probably isn’t a top 10 catcher anymore, Wieters hasn’t had a good season in quite a while, and Knizner is unproven. What’s behind that? A 19 year old who isn’t expected to make his debut until 2022.
So you complain the cardinals don’t have depth but yet you criticize the signing of Wieters In order to have depth? Wieters has been an excellent back up and Yadi s value to the team is indefensible… he was a big reason the cardinals made it to the NLCS…the cardinals aren’t going to sit Yadi who is getting paid 20 mil lol…the cardinals have Yadi, Wieters, and Knizner ready to go…please tell me what other team has that much considerable depth at the catchers position? Plus they have Herrera right behind them…who might not be ready but is considered highly as the heir apparent to Molina…how is that not depth at the catchers position…plus they brought over a catcher with the libetore trade from the rays…this is from The Athletic about the cardinals farm…
“ 9. St. Louis Cardinals
The Cardinals just keep doing it, even with a complete washout draft in 2017 and misses on their first picks in 2015 and 2016. Their evaluation of Dylan Carlson appears to have been well ahead of everyone else’s, they keep finding and/or creating catchers, and they’ve been shrewd about adding prospects in selected trades to balance out some of the other prospects they’ve traded away. They’re light in the middle infield, but that catching strength, even after trading away Carson Kelly, is a Very Good”…sorry but I don’t get where you see they don’t have depth
Andrew, you clearly don’t know much about the Cardinals farm system if you think they lack catching depth. Not even knowing who Ivan Herrera is was a big clue. According to Keith Law, he’s ranked number 97 overall, ahead of Knizner, at 19. He is also predicted to reach the majors well before 2022. Keith Law is by far the best at dealing with prospects, so i would suggest brushing up on his rankings.
As a second note, using the example of Knizner not being ready because they have Yadier Molina is a ridiculous example. He’s a legendary player in St. Louis and showed last year that he is capable of playing 80% of the games at an acceptable level, of course he’s going to play. He’s earned the right to have a large say in that decision.
What he needs is more tattoos !
Can you imagine the year 2060 when Molina is wearing his sheeple, red Jacket on Opening Day what those tattoos will look like on a 77 year old neck?
Still trolling –
Still being a dee-bag.
🙁
Those thug tattoos are excepted in St Louis because that’s a thug City. I think one year was voted the worst and most dangerous city to live in and that was probably the year Molina got his tats
Ivan Rodriquez did roids. Tony Pena, Gary Carter (had a great arm), Benito Santiago were right there with Molina defensively
Said 2020 was his last year back in ‘18.
One year, $10M. Mutual option for the same terms for another year.
HOFer, yes, but he’s borderline first ballot. Never led the league in any significant offensive category. His offensive peak is only three seasons. He’s got more seasons with an OPS+ below league average than above.
Great defender obviously, but is his defense transcending? Not sure about that or if it was good enough to make up for his paltry (by HOF standards) offensive numbers.
When we think of the all-time greatest defenders, I’m not sure Yadier comes to mind. He might not even be the best defensive catcher in the last 30 years, that might be Pudge.
You are comparing his offensive numbers to every player on the league. Compare them to other catchers. Dude squates down for nearly 2 hours a night then has to hit. His offensive numbers compared to other catchers is usually pretty good. Does he lead all catchers in hitting, no, but for a catcher, his numbers are above average. For a long time. His first couple seasons were atrocious, but over the last 10 years his hitting has always been good to great for a catcher.
I’d venture it’ll be a 2/$30M extension, if they can get around the CBA language for it
21 – $16M
22 – $13M
23 – mutual option $10M – $1Mbuyout
Btw, I wouldn’t be happy with this, I’m just trying to guess what they’ll do.
About 98% sure that language only Applies to Pre free agency guys, specifically arbitration+ how they are renewed 1-3
We’re talking free agent years. Russ Martin will not be getting 16M this offseason when he signs but he’s a free agent after a massive deal. It’s the exact same scenario for Molina
Sign him through 2022 and have him around to be a live statue outside of the stadium, just don’t put him behind the plate because he is league avg. This year he may be below league avg.
When you’re 38 and playing professionally then let me know…till then I wouldn’t be talking trash to one of the all time greats…know nothing
Lets see, a player that is on the verge of 2000 hits, 400 doubles and is and when he sign a new deal, 1000 RBIs, and you want him as a statue outside of their stadium, what is wrong with that picture?
Imagine signing that digital check 39 ok let’s give you 8 mill see how it goes
No disrespect ment dudes one of the best
If the idea is to re-sign him as a backup for $2-mil per year, absolutely.
Does he belong in the hof I’d say yes first ballot probably not…but his defense combined with being a solid hitter most of his career is enough to get him in eventually…sign him two more years if it’s not a crazy salary guys like him you want them to retire with the team if all possible..if that means extending little longer then might be advisable it’s worth it and he is still a good defender so risk not overwhelming.
An extension for Molina is extremely unlikely because this article fails to mention that the current CBA limits how much less than Molina’s current salary the Cardinals can offer. They will have much more flexibility to offer an incentive-laden contract with a lower base if they wait until after the season when he is a free agent
In the meantime, articles like this are merely an attempt by Molina’s agent to bully the Cardinals into doing something stupid.
I am not sure what you’re referring to in the CBA that would have such an effect.
There seems to be some confusion over this, would you mind sharing how that applies (the 80%)?
The club’s offer must be at least the MLB minimum salary, and, in most cases, must be at least 80% of the player’s previous year’s salary and at least 70% of the player’s salary from two seasons back.
Are you thinking of arbitration rules?
Thank you jeff, I think some people are really confused.
No, this has nothing to do with arbitration. Molina’s salary for 2020 is $20 million. That means the lowest amount the Cardinals can offer him in an extension of his current contract for 2021 is 80% of that $20 million, or $16 million. The Cardinals would be foolish to guarantee Molina $16 million at his age. A smarter move would be to offer him a guaranteed base of perhaps $8 million with incentive bonuses for games played and plate appearance thresholds. To do that, though, they have to wait until after the World Series when Molina is a free agent. Molina’s agent is trying to pressure the Cardinals into making a bad deal now, though.
I just read the CBA. You are thinking about option years, and if a team wishes to replace a players option year with a new contract, it can’t be less than 80%. Otherwise, you are thinking about pre arbitration guys.
There is nothing in the CBA about signing a player to a new contract after his deal expires to a lesser annual amount
Peds are stockpiled, needs to keep going.
Extend this man. Let him play until he’s unable then put him immediately on the big league coaching staff. If anyone has earned it, it’s this man!
Skip if he becomes a coach then he will need to remove his neck tatoos.